The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transporting binding elements to a binding station for combination with a stack of pages to be bound thereby in the production of booklets and the like. Such binding elements are usually plastic having a spine portion with transversely extending curled rings which are uncurled during loading of the stack of pages and which rebound to bind the stack of pages thereon.
In the binding of booklets involving a plurality of sheets perforated along one edge, and a plastic binding element having a spine portion with transversely extending curled rings, the binding element is supported on a comb shaped binding support of an apparatus with the rings extending between the teeth of the support. The rings are uncurled by finger members of the apparatus to enable the insertion of the perforations of the sheets onto the rings. The rings are then allowed to re-curl into a closed position. Two examples of an apparatus which accomplish this are U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,603,800 and 2,603,801.
Due to the problem of transporting a binding element to the desired orientation on the support with the curled rings extending between the teeth of the support to be engaged by fingers of the opening device, it has been proposed to releasably secure the binding elements on tape such as adhesive tape for transporting the elements to the support where they are peeled from the tape and positioned on the support. Such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,475,775 and 3,761,983. However, such devices require accurate positioning of the parallel tapes onto the plurality of binders and also experience difficulty in tangling and storage because the tapes are susceptible to twisting and misalignment of the bindings.